11
STRATIFICATION BY GENDER
AND AGE
McGraw-Hill
© 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Chapter Outline
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Social Construction of Gender
Explaining Stratification by Gender
Women: The Oppressed Majority
Aging and Society
Explaining the Aging Process
Age Stratification in the United States
Social Policy and Gender Stratification:
The Battle over Abortion from a Global
Perspective
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Social Construction of Gender
Gender Roles in the United States
•Gender roles are expectations regarding the proper
behavior, attitudes, and activities of males and
females.
•Gender roles are evident in our work and also in
how we react to others.
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Social Construction of Gender
Gender Roles in the United States
Gender-Role
Socialization
--Boys must be:
masculine
aggressive
tough
daring
dominant
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Social Construction of Gender
Gender Roles in the United States
Gender-Role
Socialization
--Girls must be:
feminine
soft
emotional
sweet
submissive
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Social Construction of Gender
Gender Roles in the United States
Women’s
and Men’s Gender Roles
--Self-image develops in males and females
through:
identification with the same gender
families
media
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Explaining Stratification by Gender
The Functionalist View
•Gender differentiation contributes to social
stability.
•Women take on expressive, emotionally supportive
roles.
•Men take on instrumental, practical roles.
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Explaining Stratification by Gender
The Conflict Response
•The relationship between men and women is one of
unequal power.
•Men have a dominant position over women.
•Gender differences are a result of the subjugation
of women by men.
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Explaining Stratification by Gender
The Feminist Perspective
•This perspective often views women’s
subordination as part of the overall exploitation and
injustice in capitalist societies.
•This perspective sometimes argues that women’s
subjugation coincided with the rise of private
property during industrialization.
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Explaining Stratification by Gender
The Interactionist Approach
•This approach focuses on everyday behavior.
--Men are more likely than women to:
change topics of conversation
ignore topics chosen by women
minimize ideas of women
interrupt women
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Women: The Oppressed Majority
Sexism and Sex Discrimination
Sexism
--Sexism is the ideology that one sex is superior
to the other.
--Sexism is generally used to refer to male
prejudice and discrimination against women.
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Women: The Oppressed Majority
Sexual Harassment
Sexual
Harassment: Behavior that occurs when
work benefits are made contingent on sexual favors
or when touching, lewd comments, or the
appearance of pornographic material creates a
“hostile environment” in the workplace.
Sexual
harassment must be understood in the
context of continuing prejudice and discrimination
against women.
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Women: The Oppressed Majority
The Status of Women Worldwide
•Women’s subordination is institutionally
sanctioned.
•Women remain in second-class positions in most of
the world.
•Women are exploited for labor in many developing
countries.
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Women: The Oppressed Majority
Women in the Workforce of the United
States
•Women’s participation in the paid labor force of the
United States increased steadily throughout the twentieth
century.
•Yet, women entering the job market find their options
restricted in important ways.
•Women are underrepresented in occupations historically
defined as “men’s jobs,” which often pay more.
Continued….
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Women: The Oppressed Majority
Women in the Workforce of the United
States
•Glass Ceiling: An invisible barrier that blocks the
promotion of a qualified individual in a work
environment because of the person’s gender, race, or
ethnicity.
•These workplace patterns have one crucial result: women
earn less money than men.
•Women are more likely to be poor than men.
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Women: The Oppressed Majority
Women in the Workforce of the United
States
•Social Consequences of Women’s Employment
--The “Second Shift”: The double burden that
working women face—work outside the home
followed by child care and housework—and which
few men share equitably.
--Studies indicate that there continues to be a clear
gender gap in the performance of housework,
although the differences are narrowing.
--Taken together, a woman’s workday on and off the
job is much longer than a man’s.
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Women: The Oppressed Majority
Women: Emergence of a Collective
Consciousness
•The feminist movement of the United States originated in
upstate New York in 1848.
•Early concerns were political and legal equality for women.
•The movement re-emerged in the 1960s to battle sexist
attitudes and the position of women in the workforce.
•Feminism is very much alive today in the growing
acceptance of women in nontraditional roles and even the
basic acknowledgment that a married mother not only can be
working outside the home but also perhaps belongs in the
labor force.
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Aging and Society
•“Being old” is a master status that commonly overshadows
all others in the United States.
•Once individuals are labeled as “old,” this designation has
a major impact on how others perceive them and how
individuals view themselves.
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Explaining the Aging Process
Functionalist Approach
Disengagement Theory
--Society and the aging individual mutually sever
many of their relationships. Thus social roles are
passed to another generation.
--The passing of social roles to another generation
ensures social stability.
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Explaining the Aging Process
Interactionist Approach
Activity
Theory
--This theory argues that the elderly persons who
remain active and socially involved will be the
best-adjusted.
--This theory contends that old people have the
same need for social interaction as other groups.
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Explaining the Aging Process
The Conflict Approach
•The treatment of older people in the United States
reflects the many divisions in society.
•The low status of older people is seen in the prejudice
and discrimination against them:
age segregation
unfair job practices
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Age Stratification in the United
States
The Graying of America
•We are, as a nation, getting older.
•In 1900, 4.1% of the population of the United States
was age 65 or older.
•By 2003, 12.6 % of the population of the United
States will be age 65 or older.
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Age Stratification in the United
States
Competition in the Labor Force
•Older workers face discrimination in the labor force.
•Younger adults tend to view older workers as “job
stealers.”
•Older workers face discrimination when applying for
jobs.
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Age Stratification in the United
States
The Elderly: Emergence of a
Collective Consciousness
•Awareness of the social power of the elderly has been
growing.
•AARP—the largest organization representing the
elderly—has enormous power and is the third largest
volunteer organization in the United States.
•The elderly in the United States are better off today
financially and physically than ever before.
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Social Policy and Gender
Stratification
The Battle over Abortion from a
Global Perspective
The
Issue
--Roe vs. Wade, 1973, was based on a woman’s right
to privacy and granted a woman the right to terminate
pregnancies.
--The ruling was condemned by pro-life groups who
believe that life actually begins at the moment of
conception and that abortion is an act of murder.
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Social Policy and Gender
Stratification
The Battle over Abortion from a
Global Perspective
The Setting
--The debate following Roe vs. Wade revolves around
prohibiting abortion altogether or, at the very least,
putting limits on it.
--Changing technology, such as the “day-after” pill
available in some nations, make abortions easier to
perform, even the day after conception.
--The people of the United States appear to support
their right to a legal abortion, but with reservations.
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Social Policy and Gender
Stratification
The Battle over Abortion from a
Global Perspective
•Sociological Insights
--Sociologists see gender and social class as largely
defining the issues surrounding abortion.
--The intense conflict over abortion reflects broader
differences over women’s position in society.
--In terms of social class, the first major restriction
on the legal right to abortion affected poor people.
--Viewed from a conflict perspective, this is one
more financial burden that falls especially heavily on
low-income women.
McGraw-Hill
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Social Policy and Gender
Stratification
The Battle over Abortion from a
Global Perspective
Policy
Initiatives
--The Supreme Court currently supports the general
right to terminate a pregnancy by a narrow margin.
--Many European nations also legalized abortions in
the 1970s, although Ireland, Belgium, and Malta
continue to ban it.
--It is primarily in Africa, Latin America, and parts of
Asia that women are not allowed to terminate a
pregnancy upon request.
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